![It's Only a Game, Why Do You Have to be Mad? [Modern Xianxia]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.royalroadcdn.com%2Fpublic%2Fcovers-large%2F148667-its-only-a-game-why-do-you-have-to-be-mad.jpg%3Ftime%3D1778600866&w=640&q=75)
by Lebensohl
Leo Chen didn't expect to transmigrate while shopping at Costco. One moment he was looking for Pokemon cards, the next he and his dad were staring at a million-dollar flying sword hovering between the toilet paper and the olive oil. Just as he's figuring out how to navigate spirit vein taxes and nuclear qi bombs, he finds a second cultivation world. But he's not the only one with access. Three Foundation Establishment Americans are in too, and they've convinced themselves that the fastest way to train his divine sense is to kill him over and over until he makes the NFL. The good news? He respawns. The bad news? His tiger mom thinks this is a legitimate tutoring program and is thrilled to pay $600,000 a year for spiritual trauma recovery tea if it means Harvard admission. Now Leo's divine sense is growing at impossible speeds, and the school's Flying Aces coach wants him competing in America's biggest sport. All it will take is dying eight times a day while helping his new friends plan an interdimensional adventure using flying swords, self-detonations, and half-baked schemes. But the war in the Catacombs is heating up, and unfortunately for Leo, military service is mandatory. All those practice deaths feel less like training now and more like rehearsal for the one he can't come back from. --- This story takes systems from Chinese cultivation novels and reimagines them in an American context. High School, College Football, NFL, Capitalism, and the US Military. Inspired by “I Have a Cultivation World”, “No Money to Cultivate Immortality?”, “World’s Best Martial Artist”, and “Immortality Through Array Formations”. This is a work of fiction. While certain real people, historical events, and organizations are referenced, all depictions are entirely fictional and reimagined for a fantasy setting. Nothing in this story should be taken as fact or as representing the author's opinions.
#3
6/25/2026
Peak #16
1d
#2
5/12/2026
Peak #9
21d
#1
3/31/2026
Peak #7
40d
Rank updated 14 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Entry forecast updated 14 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Overall Rising Stars shadow rank
deep field · ~#6069 of 6,880 · 6019 below #50
By genre
beats 94% of similar stories
beats 33% of similar stories
beats 83% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
At this conversion, the Contemporary Rising Stars bar (≈0 new followers/day) costs about 208 views/day — the story currently gets ~1.2k.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 150+ chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.